


The Cure

by awritersdaydream



Category: X-Men (Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Post-X3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-20
Updated: 2012-10-20
Packaged: 2017-11-16 15:41:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/541109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awritersdaydream/pseuds/awritersdaydream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rogue gets the cure and has to make a big change. The only thing she doesn't expect though, is Logan refusing to let her go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Cure

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a while ago and posted it on LiveJournal but I decided to add it on here too. Enjoy!

One injection is all it takes.

She stares at the glass vile and the white, mysterious, liquid trapped inside. She tells herself she is ready, though her knees are far from agreement. She doesn’t know why she is so nervous. This is what she wants; she needs this. As soon as this see-through substance pricks her skin she will be normal. She will be different.

She will be touchable.

No more coma boyfriends, no more three second kisses, no more brief hugs. She will be able to have a real boyfriend, and experience a real life, with real relationships.

She thinks of Logan, and how he told her to do what she wanted. She thinks of that horrible night when she tried to wake him from his nightmare. He almost killed her, but she almost killed him in return. She longs for that moment they can finally hug without the worry and fear of her draining him. She longs for his arms to fully wrap around her and pull her into an embrace that warms her heart and allows her to gather an idea of what she really means to him.

She thinks of Bobby who, without a doubt, will be happy with her change. She sees the way he and Kitty interact, sees the delighted look on his face as he grips her small hand without gloves. What she wouldn’t give to hold Bobby’s hand without dread.

Her heart lurches and her knees finally understand.

She has to do this, it’s the only way. She hears the wide, box-like steel door slide open, and takes a deep breath.

She thinks of Logan’s arms around her, and the feeling of Bobby’s ice cold hand.

The doctor smiles at her and flicks the injection. “Are you ready?”

Memories of her hurting the ones she loves passes through her mind. Cold, lonely nights and keeping a safe distance from everybody frolics in her memories until she can’t take it anymore.

She looks up at the doctor and smiles defiantly back at him,

“Yes.”

\--

She arrives back at the mansion late at night.

Chaos ensues as soon as she comes through the door and all the kids rush up to fill her in on what had happened. As the news of Logan killing Jean fills her ears, her eyes go wide and she has to get out of the crowd. She grips one of the boy’s bare arms and tells them she is tired, and that she will talk to them later. The news startles her, and with everything else going on she needs to think. The children immediately look at her bare hands, and then at the boy’s arm, baffled as to why he is not affected. Instead of explaining everything though, because she is tired and drained from the cure, she goes straight up to her room.

She doesn’t bother to close her door and starts picking up boxes from underneath her bed. She knew from the start that if she got the cure, things were going to change. And she accepted it. But now, seeing this, seeing her room and being back inside the mansion…it makes her start to change her mind. Her powers are gone though, how can she still contribute to them? How can she be of any service to the X-Men?

She can’t.

So she folds all of her clothes and makes sure everything is packed. She doesn’t want to leave anything behind. It takes her no more than a half hour to put everything in the boxes, as she doesn’t have many clothes, but by the end she is exhausted. She slumps down on her bed and looks around, trying to memorize the walls, the floors, the squeak of her bed, the creak from her bureau. They are all things that used to comfort her when she couldn’t sleep; they were her own little lullaby that she depended on without fail every night. She will miss this, she knows, but she will move on. She will survive.

She always does.

Footsteps are heard and when she looks to her right she sees Bobby standing in her doorway.

“You’re back,” he breathes and hurries into her room. He reaches out to grab her hand but stops, seeing that she isn’t wearing gloves.

“It’s okay,” she tells him and grips them.

His face is a mixture of shock and disappointment and she wonders what is wrong.

“So it’s…gone?”

She nods and looks down at the floor. His icy blue eyes pierce her, and suddenly the room that she couldn’t bear to leave a matter of seconds ago seems too small, and she can’t wait to get out.

“I didn’t want this,” he tells her, and she knows he is trying to be a good boyfriend. He is trying to tell her he loved her the way she was, even though it was difficult for them to be together. She knohs all of this, but his words don’t hurt any less.

“But I did.” She stands insolent. She has made her bed and now she must lie in it.

Bobby looks down at their intertwined hands and then back up at her. A hint of a smile grows on the side of his mouth, and she smiles back at him, thinking this is the Bobby she could love. His smile stops though when the boxes on her bed come into view and her empty dresser stands straight against the wall.

“You’re leaving?”

She looks at him with wide eyes. She wants him to understand that this isn’t how she wants it to end. She doesn’t want to have to leave him, to have to leave this place that has been her home for so long. But she has to. She can’t stay in a place where she doesn’t belong. Not anymore.

“There’s no reason for me to stay.”

“How about me?” He fires back, and she takes a step closer to him.

“I can’t be here,” she replies, squeezing his hands tight. “I would just be slowing everyone down.”

“I don’t want you to go.”

“I don’t want to either, but I have to.”

Then, she slowly rises up on her tippy toes to his height, and places her palms on both sides of his face. His blue eyes are not focused anywhere else except for on her. She breathes it in; so this is what it feels like to feel. She presses her lips softly against his and gives him the most sensual of kisses. Her eyes close and she presses her body up against him.

 _Feel, feel, feel_.

And all at once her mind is calm. The only thing she is paying attention to is the way Bobby’s lips feel on hers, the way his hands are gripping her waist. It is over too soon for Rogue, or well now, Marie; however, she knows this is just the beginning. She now has a lifetime of feeling and she wouldn’t take this back for her powers.

“I’ll visit,” she promises him.

And without another look at him, she grabs her boxes off of her bed, and dashes down the stairs.

\--

She is halfway out the door when she hears him.

“Going somewhere, kid?”

She turns around and places one hand on her hip. “I’m not a kid anymore, you know.”

“I know,” Logan says and walks towards her. The foyer is long, but with Logan’s strides he is in front of her within seconds. “Old habits die hard, I guess.”

“I guess so.” She looks at the floor. She planned on saying goodbye to him, but after her conversation with Bobby she thought against it. It was hard enough leaving Bobby, she wasn’t sure if she could take leaving Logan.

“You never answered my question,” he says, leaning into her slightly, “You going somewhere?”

“I’m cured.” She blurts. He takes a step back in shock. Or maybe disappointment, or maybe just plain Logan.

“So you did go through with it.”

She drops her boxes on the floor, quietly, as not to wake up the rest of the house. “You told me to follow my heart,” she shrugs, “So that’s exactly what I did.”

“I told you to do what you wanted.”

“Same thing.”

“So you’re really cured?” He looks skeptical, and she knows the only way he will believe her is if she shows him.

She nods and takes a step towards him, their bodies mere centimeters apart. He doesn’t move, and his eyes do not leave hers. Everything is silent around them, the whole house still asleep. She focuses on his face, on the long, furry hair on his cheeks. She always wondered what they would feel like.

Slowly, she raises her right hand up to his face. He suddenly looks nervous, and whether it’s because he is scared or because this is the first time they have ever been this close she doesn’t know. Just before her palm can shape his face, he flinches.

“It’s okay,” she murmurs, and Logan’s eyes flutter closed.

Finally, her hand reaches the side of his face, her palm directly touching the hair on his cheeks that truly makes him Wolverine. Logan’s eyes snap open at the contact, and he covers her hand with his.

“Amazing,” he breathes.

There are butterflies circling in her stomach and suddenly she doesn’t feel so steady on her feet. She feels Logan lean into her hand and she smiles, the feeling of liberation taking over her body.

This is real.

Remembering she can’t stay, and that this isn’t her home anymore, she removes her hand and takes a step back from him. His eyes are still half-closed and her heart aches at the thought of her possibly never seeing him again. For years he has been her rock, the person she could always go to and rely on no matter what. He is more than a friend; he is her everything. She wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him. They are connected in a way she and Bobby never were, and it is this connection that she has the most trouble letting go of.

“I have to go,” she tells him and picks her boxes up off the floor. Maybe if she leaves immediately, it won’t be so bad.

She feels Logan snap out of his daze and quickly tries to catch her.

“Wait!” He calls and grabs her bare arm. He can touch her now. The realization that not only is she able to touch other people but that they can touch her as well washes over her, and once again her legs threaten to give out. “Why do you have to go?”

“I don’t belong here anymore, Logan.” She says sadly.

He is still gripping her arm. She doesn’t mind at all. “You are an essential member of the team.”

“I was,” she corrects, “When I still had my power. Now I am just normal; I am a regular human being. I have to find my own way.”

He lets go of her arm. “You can find it here. Trust me, I’ve been running my whole life kid, and it never works. Sometimes in order to find who you are you have to plant roots. You have to stay in one place.”

“It’s not about finding myself, Logan,” she says, trying to make him understand this is no place to start a life. Things are different now; she is different now. Her needs are different from everyone else’s’. She isn’t like them, and she wouldn’t be accepted. “I need to start my life. I appreciate all that you’ve done for me. You’ve been so much more than a friend. But it’s time for me to move on.”

She turns to go, the conversation exhausting her. She thought he would tell her to have a nice life. She never thought he would fight with her to stay.

“How long?” He asks.

“I don’t know,” she answers honestly. She could wind up right back here. “I’ll check in every few months, like you used to.”

“Marie,” he whispers warmly, and it is the only time she’s heard him say her name so meaningfully. She turns around to face him and is surprised by what she sees. He is standing in the middle of the foyer, his hands at his sides, his feet inches apart and his face looking as broken as it ever could. “Stay.”

It is his last attempt to get her to stay and she knows it. It takes all of the strength inside her to refuse him, but she has to. “No.”

She has one hand on the doorknob when she hears him throw his hands up in defeat. She closes her eyes. It is too much. She doesn’t want to leave on these terms but she has no choice. It’s for the best.

“Then I guess I’m just going to have to come with you.”

She whirls around. “Logan, no.”

He grabs his coat off the stairs and disappears into another room, only to return with his duffle bag. He walks up to her and grins, something he doesn’t do often.

“You said you’ll check in every few months, right? Besides, I promised you once that I would protect you.” He adjusts the duffle bag strap on his shoulder. “And I don’t make many promises, but when I do, I keep them.”

“I don’t need your protection; I’m fine on my own. Besides, you’re needed here. Now more than ever.”

“I’m not coming with you just for protection. And they can live without me for a little while.”

She crosses her arms over her chest. “Then why do you want to come with me?”

“Because we’re connected, kid,” he says casually but she knows this isn’t easy for him to confess. “We’re the same. Wherever you go, I go.”

A smile creeps up on her and she uncrosses her arms.

“Right?” He asks.

She nods. “Right.”

He takes the boxes out of her hands and puts an arm around her shoulder. She assumes the move is easier for him now that Jean, Scott, and Charles are gone for good. She feels the grief inside him. She knows he will write to the rest of the team about where they have gone so nobody worries and tries to find them.

They are leaving the same way they started: together.

She will miss this place, but in all truth she has a feeling she will be back. Maybe not permanently, but for a little while. Maybe she needs to leave in order to come back. Maybe she won’t even like the new life she is trying so hard to start. Maybe, but until she tries the latter she won’t ever know.

She thinks about that first ride with Logan, how alike they were, how lost and lonely their lives had seemed. She remembers how she thought she could ride with him forever.

Well, forever might just start now.


End file.
